A ‘COLLAPSE’ in Government spending on bluetongue disease testing as the Westcountry outbreak worsens has been questioned by Exmoor farmer and campaigner James Wright.

Exmoor has been suffering the worst outbreak in the country with hundreds of cases of the disease, which is spread by midges and particularly affects sheep and cattle.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) question from Mr Wright revealed Government spending on bluetongue testing fell by almost three-quarters in a single year.

The FoI response from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) showed £900,000 was spent on testing for bluetongue serotype 3 (BTV-3) across Britain in the 2024-25 financial year, falling to £230,000 in 2025-26.

The Department said it did not hold figures for the current year, and had not set aside any money in advance specifically for bluetongue, with testing instead paid for through broad contracts covering a range of diseases.

Mr Wright, who farms beef and sheep on Exmoor, writes a monthly column for Farmers Guardian and is policy director of the Conservative Rural Forum.

He said: “I asked a simple question

“How much is being spent to protect our animals from bluetongue, and where is it going?

“The answer is the spending has dropped from £900,000 to £230,000 in a single year, at the very moment the disease was taking hold across Devon and Somerset.

“Farmers have a right to know why the money fell as the threat rose.”

Now, Mr Wright is calling on Ministers to publish spending by region, to restore surveillance funding in the worst affected areas, and to set out clearly what help Westcountry farmers can expect.

He said the FoI figures followed a marked change in the Government’s approach.

Defra extended the bluetongue restricted zone on July 1 last year to cover the whole of England, ending movement controls and routine pre-movement testing within the country.

It moved instead to a policy led by vaccination, which farmers arranged and paid for through their own vets.

Defra now funds diagnostic testing for up to three affected animals where a keeper reports suspected cases, leaving the remaining cost with the farmer.

The Department also confirmed it did not hold any regional breakdown of its spending, only national totals.

Mr Wright specifically asked for figures for the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) South West region, the area now bearing the brunt of the outbreak.

Reported cases across the UK had by August passed 500 for the current season, with Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall among the hardest hit counties.

Mr Wright said: “Labour will say they have switched to vaccination, but it is farmers who are paying for it, for the jabs, for the vet costs of testing, and for every animal they lose.

“Defra cannot even tell me what has been spent in the South West, because it does not count it.

“Our farmers and vets are carrying this outbreak on their own, and I will keep pressing until we get straight answers and real support.”